were on two several occasions successfully operated upon, and for nearly ten years more the voice of ‘the old man eloquent’ was heard with perhaps greater effect than at any previous period of his career. His spirit retained something of the buoyancy of youth. He was happy in his home and in his friends, felt a keen interest not only in the political movements, but also in the literature and scientific discoveries of the day. The bitterness of his political adversaries was subdued by the commanding powers and unmistakable patriotism by which every speech he made was distinguished. Even so late as 1851 Lord Derby was anxious for him to become lord chancellor for the fourth time. He was quite equal to the fatigue of office, but he could not afford its expenses; and he was at an age, and had long been of a temper, which prefers to speak on public questions unfettered by the ties of party. After a successful operation for cataract in July 1852 he was present in the House of Lords at all important debates, and his speeches excited universal admiration by their ripe sagacity, their play of humour and invective, the glow of genuine feeling, and the marvellous command of all historical and other facts bearing upon his argument. Thus of his speech against the proposal to create life peerages (7 Feb. 1856) Lord Campbell, who did not love the man, says that it was ‘the most wonderful ever heard. It would have been admirable for a man of thirty-five, and for a man of eighty-four it was miraculous.’ Even more remarkable were his speeches in 1859 and 1860 on the national defences, passages in which will always be of priceless value as warnings how alone England can maintain the pre-eminence and the empire she has won. His last speech was spoken (7 May 1861) on a bill for establishing the validity of wills of personal estate. It showed no decline in the strong reason and masculine eloquence with which he had long fascinated the peers; but, though he frequently attended the house afterwards, he was no more heard in debate. The remaining years of his life were happy, if life can be made happy by ‘love, honour, troops of friends,’ and by carrying into the enforced quiet of extreme age the keen appreciation of all that is best in literature and art and human nature, and a living hope of a better life to come. All these Lord Lyndhurst had in an eminent degree. After a brief illness he passed gently and tranquilly away on 12 Oct. 1863, being then in his ninety-second year. Of the many panegyrics which appeared after his death perhaps none is at once more true and striking than that by Lord Brougham (Memoirs, iii. 437): ‘Lyndhurst was so immeasurably superior to his contemporaries, and indeed to almost all who had gone before him, that he might well be pardoned for looking down rather than praising. Nevertheless he was tolerably fair in the estimate he formed of character, and being perfectly free from all jealousy or petty spite, he was always ready to admit merit where it existed. Whatever he may have thought or said of his contemporaries, whether in politics or at the bar, I do not think his manners were ever offensive to anybody, for he was kind and genial. His good nature was perfect, and he had neither nonsense nor cant any more than he had littleness or spite in his composition.’ The life of Lyndhurst in the volume of Lord Campbell's ‘Lives of the Chancellors’ published after Lord Campbell's death, while containing some interesting facts, is so full of misstatements and malignant innuendo as to be worthless as an authority. Written apparently to blast the good name of a great lawyer and statesman, it has only proved damaging to the reputation of its author for accuracy, candour, and honourable feeling.
The portraits of Lyndhurst are: 1. As a child in his mother's lap, in what is known as the family portrait, by his father, now in the possession of Mr. Amory, Boston, U.S. 2. As the boy in the green jacket in the picture of ‘The Death of Major Peirson,’ National Gallery. Between this period and his becoming chancellor no portrait of him has been traced. 3. In Sir George Hayter's picture of the House of Commons, 5 Feb. 1833, now in the National Portrait Gallery. 4. In the picture in the same gallery of Fine Arts Commission, 1846, by J. Partridge. 5. Separate life-size half-length portrait, study for the preceding, in the possession of Lady Lyndhurst, excellent. 6. Full-length in robes of lord high chancellor, by J. Phillips, now in National Portrait Gallery, not good as a likeness. 7. A miniature when at the age of sixty-three, by Sir William Ross, in the possession of Lady Lyndhurst, excellent. 8. A crayon drawing by Mr. George Richmond, in the possession of Francis Barlow, long his lordship's secretary, excellent. This has been admirably engraved, first as a private plate, and again as the frontispiece to Martin's ‘Life of Lyndhurst,’ by the late Francis Holl, R.A. 9. A bust by Behnes, presented to Lady Lyndhurst by his lordship's friends in 1841, and after his death presented by her to Trinity College, Cambridge, which is considered by those who knew Lord Lyndhurst best to be faultless as a likeness. 10. An unsatisfactory unfinished portrait, taken about two years before Lord Lyndhurst's death, by Mr. G. F. Watts, in
